Tour de Big Bear and Rim Nordic 2022
This past weekend was a big one for my cycling abilities. I went up to Big Bear for a weekend of riding and racing. The 100 mile, road, Tour de Big Bear on Saturday. Then the 4th of 4 mountain bike races at Rim Nordic on Sunday.
I decided to take Friday off from work to make it up early and do some warm up riding. There is a fantastic trail called Skyline that I rode a section of for the warmup. I pushed it too hard on a technical rocky section. I ran out of momentum, got stuck on a rock, and slow motion fell over. Luckily the bike was fine and I just got a few scrapes.
That same day I picked up my registration packet and waited for my friends to arrive. There was a variety of strange sports playing on ESPN 8 “the Ocho”. The strangest of which was probably air guitar. Once everyone fought through the traffic and made it to Big Bear, we were able to make a delicious Indian dinner. The next morning was going to be an early start for me so I turned in early.
The ride/race began with several PAA folks at the start line with the intention of doing the full 100 mile route. There was a neutral rollout behind a hot rod through a few neighborhoods before things kicked off. There was some rolling terrain on an out and back to Snow Summit. I did my best to stay near the front but was quickly dropped by some pro riders and fell into the 2nd or 3rd group on the road. This really paid off on the way back around the lake. This rolling terrain went by quick with a draft. Hitting the Onyx climb for the first time was where the timed KOM segment began. I had a goal of 300 watts for the thirty min climb but the altitude had other ideas. I probably only managed 260 watts or so. But my time put me at 16th overall! A solid result.
Following the first summit, I took some time at the rest station to refuel and prepare for a long out and back. The route descended for a very long time before looping back up Onyx a 2nd time. This 2nd ascent was much longer and more difficult from fatigue and heat! I spent this time solo, slowly reeling in riders with my steady and unimpressive 215 watt pace. I took my time again at the summit getting some food and drink before descending back into Big Bear. I knew I had basically done it at this point but still pushed hard to finish the last 20 km or so. There were some sketchy riders that I wanted to distance myself from. I finished the full ride, 100 miles and about 8000 ft of climbing in about 5.5 hours. I am very happy with that result.
I had to recover quickly as the next day was the final (4th) race in the Rim Nordic MTB series. I had won all 3 up to this point but had to still do well since this last race counted as double points. It wasn’t as early of a start but I still quickly got ready and checked myself out of the cabin, leaving my friends behind for a more leisurely morning.
Warming up for the race I felt pretty terrible. Making any sort of semi-hard effort was very challenging. I thought I wasn’t going to do so well in the race but just had to finish as best I could to still win the overall. When the time came I lined up on the start line and gave it my best.
The race starts with a pretty hard climb where I was able to stay in 2nd and keep 1st in my sight. I planned to hang on as long as possible. Going through the next downhill section I was faster than the leading man and mostly caught up to him. This allowed me to rest a little while we did a fire road false flat to the next single track. Through the rest of the descent I stayed right with him and passed him briefly. Through lap 1 I was right on his wheel and knew if I could hold on for the climb I could win. Which, somehow, my legs felt pretty great on the 2nd lap. I was a shadow on my competitors wheel through the climb and fire road. On the fastest part of the descent I took my shot and attacked hard past him. That was all it took. I stayed out in front from there on out and won!
4 out of 4 wins for the series and the overall win for my category! I will be back again next year and upgrade myself to the next level of competition. We will see how it goes.
